Posted 15 May 2019 - 12:46

Details in 'myCMC' inform emergency and end of life treatment and care

Details in 'myCMC' inform emergency and end of life treatment and care

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The health secretary is backing an online NHS scheme that allows people to record their wishes about treatment and care.

Matt Hancock welcomed the move to giving people with chronic conditions and those nearing the end of life more control of what happens in an emergency, for example whether they would want to be resuscitated or if they wish to die at home.

Information shared across services and providers

The online urgent care plan, called myCMC (my Co-ordinate My Care), enables details to be shared between providers such as 111, out-of-hours GPs and ambulance services.

People can start their plan online at home, adding details such as emergency contacts, cultural or spiritual beliefs and organ donation preferences.

Once they have completed the forms, they can consult a nurse or GP, who will add clinical details and upload the plan so it can be shared with other healthcare professionals.

Mr Hancock said: 'The best innovations are often brilliantly simple. Technology like this can help tailor care to individuals and help us fulfil the ambition of the NHS Long Term Plan to move to more person-first care.'

Research based on almost 70,000 CMC plans from London – the plan on which myCMC is based – found that fewer than one in five people with a plan died in hospital. Around half of all deaths tend to occur in hospital.

Julia Riley, the clinical lead for CMC and palliative care consultant at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'MyCMC came about after I saw the way in which my sister-in-law was cared for when she died.

'She wanted to die at home, but out-of-hours providers insisted she went to hospital. It would have been better if urgent care providers had known about her wishes in advance.

'That is why we developed CMC, which has helped thousands share their treatment wishes.'